8 The Leveller vol 5, no 4, January/February 2013 www.leveller.ca

CUSA Purges Service Centre Coordinators

The Fall 2012 semester was marked by the dismissal of three Carleton Under-

graduate Students’ Association (CUSA) and Carleton Graduate Students’ Associa-

tion (GSA) service centre coordinators.

In September, Sarah Cooper of the GLBTQ Centre and Leila Navabzadeh of

the Bill Ellis Centre for Mature and Part-Time Students (BECAMPS) did not have

their contracts renewed. In December, Womyn’s Centre Programming Coordinator

Diana Banyasz was fired one week after executives approved her leave of absence

until January, something provided in the collective agreement for CUSA employees,

who are members of CUPE Local 1281.

Cooper and Navabzadeh said that in the past, employees were not replaced

until after graduation. Volunteers at the GLBTQ Centre and BECAMPS praised

the coordinators’ work. Both Cooper and Navabzadeh believe that their contracts

weren’t renewed for political reasons.

“I wasn’t chosen, not based on the fact that I didn’t do well, but because of

political reasons.. . I did not advocate for ABC [A Better Carleton, the current ex-

ecutive slate]. There was sort of an expectation that I would publicly advocate for

them.” said Navabzadeh. Cooper stated that she was never disciplined on the job, saying, “I’ve never

even had a warning about being written up.”

Navabzadeh says the message CUSA executives are sending to other employees

is “to shut up. You cannot speak against them. If you do, you will be punished, and

[they] will find any way possible to get you out of your job...the message is ‘you’re

either with us or against us, and if you’re against us, you don’t have your job.’”

Banyasz was told that her employment was terminated because she failed to

submit a schedule. “I submitted my schedule in October the same way I’ve sub-

mitted all my schedules in the previous years to previous supervisors,” she said.

According to Banyasz, CUSA Vice-President of Student Services Fatima Hassan

demanded a screen capture of her Carleton Central account, which she described

as “private information” that is not required by the collective agreement.

In December, CUSA President Alexander Golovko and Hassan both approved

her leave of absence in person, said Banyasz. At the time, she said that “Golovko

was understanding,” and she then sent an email to confirm. One week later, Hassan

sent her an email informing her of her termination, Banyasz told the Leveller. Her

job was posted the same day. The union has filed grievances for both the firing

and the posting.

Council Manipulation Leads to Changes in CUSA Discrimination Code

Images leaked from a private online group show that the CUSA executive and support-

ers conspired to schedule December’s CUSA Council meeting on a day when controversial

discrimination policy changes would face less opposition.

Michael De Luca, vice-president finance of CUSA, stated that “Almost all the hacks are

conveniently unavailable” on Dec. 12, the day the meeting occurred, noting that only one

“ABC [A Better Carleton, the CUSA executive slate] person” was unavailable that day.

The motion to change CUSA’s discrimination policy, adopted after several hours of stu-

dents and councillors voicing their opposition, approves the funding of groups advocating to

remove access to abortion, removes CUSA’s ban on specific racist groups such as the KKK,

Heritage Front, and altering the nature of CUSA’s safe space policy.

Before the change, CUSA’s policy emphasized providing safe spaces for marginalized

communities on campus, including women, the GLBTQ community, and racialized groups.

Changes stipulate that CUSA will “ensure that its members have access to facilities and re-

sources without fear of discrimination” based on “religious or political” identity. Sam Heaton,

an undergraduate student opposing the motion at the meeting, stated that this addition is

“a Trojan horse that attacks communities based on giving free reign to people who may

be there to interrupt, to sabotage the good work and the safe spaces that are created.”

Erica Butler, co-coordinator of the Carleton GLBTQ Centre, said at the meeting that the

change “leaves room for CUSA to fund groups that actively seek to take away rights on the

basis of their religious or political stance.”

“Many in this room would argue that rights to free speech would trump right to safe

spaces. This completely contradicts current human rights codes at the provincial level, which

Carleton as an institution is bound by,” she said.

Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences representative Kaylee Cameron presented a petition

at the beginning of the December meeting with the signatures of 197 students opposing

the change. Despite the timing of the changes being planned to limit opposition, and the

meeting taking place during the examination period, over 200 students joined a Facebook

group opposing the changes. At least two dozen students attended the meeting in person

to oppose the changes.

Supporters of the motion ridiculed safe space policies and made discriminatory com-

ments. In the same online group used to coordinate CUSA Council, De Luca commented

that “Justin James Campbell [the seconder of the motion] is running an anti-safe space

training this weekend.”

In the same vein, Vanessa Ebuka, the mover of the motion, remarked that Pride is a “sex

zoo” that promotes “rambunctious behaviour,” as quoted in the Charlatan.

Health Plan Check-up

Adam CarrollOn Oct. 31, a lawsuit was issued to

CUSA by the GSA. The GSA alleges that

CUSA breached their joint health and

dental coverage contract signed earlier

in the year, and that CUSA was trying to

claim a $500,000+ surplus as their own

despite contributions to the revenue by

both parties.

CUSA and the GSA have a long history

of cooperating to provide health and den-

tal coverage to students. In 1991 there

was only one health plan, administered

to both graduate and undergraduate

students by CUSA. In order for both or-

ganizations to provide better services to

members, negotiations between CUSA

and the GSA were initiated in 2000 to es-

tablish legal cooperation for health and

dental plans.

Principles of cooperation and mutual-

ity were agreed to and signed on Aug. 31,

2000 by the presidents and VP finances of

CUSA and the GSA. They pledged them-

selves to jointly ad-minister a plan. A Joint Oversight Committee was established, comprised of two represen-tatives of the GSA and CUSA. The com-mittee was to meet at least once a year to flesh out the details of each subsequent joint plan.

Since then, CUSA and the GSA have been jointly providing health and dental cover-age to members in good faith. That is, until the election of the current CUSA executive, which calls their team “A Better Carleton.” At an emergency CUSA Council meeting on July 26, 2012, A Better Carleton adopted an amendment to the CUSA bylaws read-ing, “All matters except those laid out in Bylaw IV s. 1.1(c) in relation to the CUSA Health, Dental and Accident Plan shall be decided by a referendum vote of the CUSA Inc. Board of Trustees.”At the same meeting, a motion was passed stating that CUSA “shall delegate its authority over all referenda processes except those laid out in Bylaw IV s. 1.1(c) in relation to the CUSA Health, Dental and Accident Plan to the CUSA Inc. Board of Trustees.” These motions served to, in CUSA’s estimation, allow three of their executives to decide to cancel the exist-ing health coverage of undergraduate students while calling it a referendum.In July 2012, the CUSA Inc. Board of Trustees voted to end the joint contract with the GSA and insurance broker Mor-neau Shepell, part of the Student Health

Network. This contract was signed on Sept. 1, 2011 by two of the previous CUSA executives. Both this joint agreement with Mor-neau Shepell and the original agreement with the GSA in 2000 had specific criteria for cancelling or leaving the joint health plans. The 2011 contract could be ter-minated “through a legally constituted referendum or other lawful process pur-suant to the rules and bylaws governing both [CUSA and the GSA] vote to discon-tinue [the plan].” Sections 8 and 9 of the original 2000 agreement also state that agreements could be terminated either through mutual consent or withdrawn through a referendum held by CUSA and the GSA.

The GSA claims in its lawsuit that the con-tract was never legally terminated. No ref-erendum was actually held, therefore the cancellation was legally invalid. CUSA’s constitution uses the Oxford Paperback Dictionary’s definition of a referendum: “a g e n -

Accountability

Bullying Corruption

Honesty

Labour Relations

Social Justice

Transparency

FABFDDC “The letter incorrectly

claims that CUSA’s health and dental coverage was “renegotiated,” when it was in fact unilaterally cancelled. No attempt was made to

renegotiate within CUSA’s legal agreements.”

Carleton students react to social media racism

Carleton students moved to impeach Board of Governors (BoG) representative Zane Colt after he tweeted a comment perceived as racist in early January. Colt, president of the local Israel Awareness Committee and BoG representative of the Community Relations & Advancement and Building Program committee, tweeted, “It frustrated me that it takes < 30 seconds from the moment I step off the bus until I see my first kiffiyeh on campus. #israe-ladvocacy.” Students distributed an online petition http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/zanecolt/― alleging that Colt is “attempt-ing to spread racism and hatred towards any individual identifying Palestinian heri-tage.” As of Jan. 13, the petition has gar-nered over 900 signatures.

www.leveller.ca vol 5, no 4, January/February 2013 The Leveller 9

Network. This contract was signed on Sept. 1, 2011 by two of the previous CUSA executives. Both this joint agreement with Mor-neau Shepell and the original agreement with the GSA in 2000 had specific criteria for cancelling or leaving the joint health plans. The 2011 contract could be ter-minated “through a legally constituted referendum or other lawful process pur-suant to the rules and bylaws governing both [CUSA and the GSA] vote to discon-tinue [the plan].” Sections 8 and 9 of the original 2000 agreement also state that agreements could be terminated either through mutual consent or withdrawn through a referendum held by CUSA and the GSA.

The GSA claims in its lawsuit that the con-tract was never legally terminated. No ref-erendum was actually held, therefore the cancellation was legally invalid. CUSA’s constitution uses the Oxford Paperback Dictionary’s definition of a referendum: “a g e n -

eral vote by the electorate on a single po-

litical question which has been referred to

them for a direct decision.” The elector-

ate, according to CUSA’s constitution, is

defined as “all Members of the Associa-

tion,” and every registered undergraduate

student is a member.CUSA’s cancellation of its contract

with the GSA is similar to the University of

Victoria Students’ Society (UVSS)’s health

plan contract controversy. In April 2010,

UVSS Director of Finance Edward Pull-

man signed a one-year contract with the

Student Health Network broker Morneau

Sobeco, the predecessor of Morneau

Shepell, and the provider, Greenshield.

In the summer of 2010, under new VP

Finance Kelsey Hannan, the UVSS “broke

their health contract early with the Stu-

dent Health Network,” Michael Glover,

Director of Operations at Camosun Col-

lege told the Leveller. He observed the

events at the time. According to Glover,

the UVSS breached the original contract.

Glover’s colleague Michel Turcotte of-

fered some insight into the reasons for

UVSS cancelling the contract. Because

the National Student Health Network

is loosely associated with the Canadian

Federation of Students (CFS), Canada’s

national student association to which all

CUSA members belong, people who are

“very anti-CFS” oppose it.

The UVSS then signed a three-year

contract with broker Lev Bukhman and

his Studentcare Network – the same

network CUSA executives signed with

upon cancelling their joint agreement

with the GSA.Attempts by The Leveller to verify this

information or gain access to CUSA’s

contract Studentcare were met with

hostility by CUSA VP Finance Michael De

Luca. De Luca informed the Leveller that

“You’re not welcome here,” and added

“get out of my office.” De Luca also sug-

gested to “Learn to be a journalist before

you come into our office.” He said, “get

out,” and “don’t email us again.”

A Nov. 20, 2012 CUSA Council meeting

passed a motion that was almost identical

to the one passed at the July 26 emergency

meeting of CUSA Council. According to De

Luca, the new motion served to “strength-

en [the] legal position” of CUSA. When

asked by Public Affairs and Policy Manage-

ment Councillor Joel Tallerico whether

CUSA councillors were liable in a lawsuit,

De Luca replied, “The simple answer is

no, Joel… no, liability will not attach to this

council by voting on this motion.”

Tallerico then asked, “Can you guar-

antee people will not be named in a

lawsuit?” De Luca replied, “Yes,” and

argued that this was the case because

CUSA Council is a “moot assembly. It’s

essentially a mock parliament. It’s not a

legal entity, it has no status in law.” CUSA

Council is the legislative body of the Car-

leton University Students’ Association, a

non-profit organization that has existed

since 1942.In 2011, De Luca himself sued CUSA

Council and held council members

personally liable after he and a num-

ber of other councillors were removed

for failing to fulfill their duties as

councillors to attend committee meet-

ings. De Luca’s lawsuit eventually cost

students $200,000.

“The letter incorrectly claims that CUSA’s health and dental coverage was “renegotiated,” when it was in fact unilaterally cancelled. No attempt was made to

renegotiate within CUSA’s legal agreements.”

Carleton students react to social media racism

Carleton students moved to impeach Board of Governors (BoG) representative Zane Colt after he tweeted a comment perceived as racist in early January. Colt, president of the local Israel Awareness Committee and BoG representative of the Community Relations & Advancement and Building Program committee, tweeted, “It frustrated me that it takes < 30 seconds from the moment I step off the bus until I see my first kiffiyeh on campus. #israe-ladvocacy.” Students distributed an online petition http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/zanecolt/― alleging that Colt is “attempt-ing to spread racism and hatred towards any individual identifying Palestinian heri-tage.” As of Jan. 13, the petition has gar-nered over 900 signatures.

Golovko CampaiGninG Early

editorialIn January, Lev Bukhman’s

Studentcare Network sent a

letter to all of Carleton’s un-dergraduate students. Arriving

two weeks before the CUSA’s

elections, the letter includes

a full colour photo of current

CUSA President Alexander

Golovko. Attached to the let-ter was a $20 cheque.The letter incorrectly claims

that CUSA’s health and dental

coverage was “renegotiated,”

when it was in fact unilater-ally cancelled. No attempt was

made to renegotiate within CU-SA’s legal agreements. In addition, the letter at-

tributes a list of successes to

Golovko and his CUSA ex-ecute slate, A Better Carleton.

These claims do not hold up

to basic scrutiny. It claims that the $20 cheque

marks “the first time that CUSA

has lived up to its promise of

fighting for lower student fees.”

Apart from the fact that no one

is in a position to argue that

CUSA has never in its 70-year

history saved its members mon-ey on fees, A Better Carleton has

actually discontinued CUSA’s

precedent of fighting at the fed-eral, provincial, and university

level for lower fees, including

tuition fees. The letter refers to a “more

practical approach to reducing

student fees.” This year alone,

Golovko did not oppose the

university when the administra-tion considered implementing

a $26 per student Access Copy-right fee, and the current CUSA

executive has not challenged

increases in tuition fees, which

will cost every Carleton student

hundreds of dollars this year. CUSA claims to have saved

students $1 million through its

policies, but has been unable

to provide proof upon request.

After the second year of the

new contract, rates are no lon-ger guaranteed and Bukhman’s

company is able to raise the

costs to CUSA members.The letter advertises 10 per

cent discounts with Shoppers

Drug Mart and a 10 per cent

discount on Life Brand prod-ucts. With Shoppers Drug

Mart’s relatively high dispen-sation fees, it is still cheaper

to fill prescriptions elsewhere.

Even with a 10 per cent dis-count, Life Brand products are

still more expensive than No

Name brand products.Golovko’s letter claims that

CUSA now provides “a real and

verifiable dental network [sic].”

This emphasis implies that the

previous network was both un-real and unverifiable; in fact,

the previous network was larger

than the new network.Contrary to what the letter

suggests, CUSA’s new opt-out

process is more cumbersome

than in the past. Students

now have to provide evidence

of alternative coverage, and

since opt-out cheques are now

mailed to accounts on file with

Carleton Central, there is less

guarantee of students receiving

them. It has resulted in rough-ly 2,000 fewer undergraduate

opt-outs than last year.The letter also heralds a

toll-free call centre to help

students with the plan, some-thing also provided by the

previous CUSA health and

dental plan. The “On-campus

representatives in the fall and

winter semesters” touted by

the letter are in fact Student-care staff paid to sit at a table

in the atrium for a few weeks

each semester. Previously,

CUSA employed a full-time

health plan coordinator to

directly assist students in the

CUSA office year-round.Golovko concludes by again

promoting his election slate,

thanking students for “belief in

our team and support you have

shown over the past year.”

The information contained in

Golovko and Studentcare’s let-ter is misleading and unverifi-able, its promotion of a CUSA

election slate is unprecedented,

and the use of payouts during

an election month exudes a

special brand of fishiness.

Zane Colt with CUSA President Alex Golovko

Hillel Ottawa Facebook page